SAO Forsaken Heavens e1: The Masked Man
by Finmide
Summary: A master mind hacker, discovered how to reprogram the Amusphere to kill you when you die in the game. And so He forcibly drags 100,000 players who were logging on at the time into his created world, thhese players include Kirito, Asuna, Suguha, and all their friends. Now Kirito and the others have to suffer the SAO incident all over again, except in a new world.
1. Chapter 1

Sword Art Online

Forsaken Heavens

Ep1: The Masked Man

Chapter 1

Kazuto arrived home from the academy. This academy being the same one that all members of the SAO incident had to go to in order to continue their education. He and the others had a plan to go questing together in the new Aincrad which was no found in the new Alfheim online game. Because there was a particularly large quest that was added that would require a large party to go after it. Plus it's been at least two weeks since Kazuto had a chance to get back on the game and hang out with the rest of the gang. Mostly because of big projects he had to handle for school.

Kirito put the disc in the system and flipped on the new Amusphere he bought. He would have been using his old nerve gear, but there was a small incident that happened when one of his project partners came over. In all the Nerve Gear just got smashed to pieces, accidently. So after a week of crying about it he bought an AMV-Sphere as a replacement. Now he had to configure it, and then transfer Yui's backup files onto it.

Once that was done Kazuto put the Amusphere on and turned on the power. He walked over and lay on the bed just so he won't get hurt while playing.

"Link Start!" Kirito said activating the device.

The system turned on and showed a screen to test the colors of the screen. Then it ran a check to see if all the connections were operational. Once the status check was complete it dived him straight into the environment.

Once Kirito had gained consciousness in the virtual world he noticed that he was looking out into a large field. It was night time, and the stars in the sky seemed endless in number. There were a few, bodies of water here and there. However there was a problem with this scene. This wasn't where he last was. Last he remembered he was in a tavern when he logged out. He was there along with Asuna, Silica, Lisbeth, Klein, Agil, and Suguha. But this wasn't the tavern; in fact this didn't look like any part of Alfheim online at all.

Kirito swiped his arm to bring out the menu. Once he saw his stats appear he was shocked at what he saw. It said he was a level one, and his stats were almost nothing. Kirito also noticed that the sleeve of his coat, it was very familiar. It was the same coat he had from SAO. Kirito opened up his inventory and found that he had nothing but what was equipped on his character. His sword is only a mere iron sword. Kirito then ran over to a pool of water and looked at his reflection.

The face he saw was his normal face, not what he was expecting to see. Whatever was going on he knew that he wasn't where he was supposed to be, this wasn't Alfheim online. As Kirito looked up he could see that there were other people here also. They also looked just as confused as he was. If that was true then that means that everyone here was supposed to be.

Now he could see people disappearing with a flash of light, it was like a large wave of light coming toward Kirito. Once it reached him he was engulfed in the light and he appeared in a plaza like area along with thousands of other people. This was starting to give Kirito a bad feeling about this. It was way too familiar to a similar game he played before.

People stood in the crowded lobby confused and angry. Unsure what was going on they went crazy almost trying to find a way out. It was loud from all the yelling that Kirito could barely hear his own thoughts. In the center of the plaza there was a large fountain. Which Kirito figured that he should head over there, because if he was any of the others he would do the same? That would be the most likely choice of where they would meet up.

As Kirito pushed through the crowd he was able to slowly make his way over to fountain. There it was surprisingly not as crowded. Kirito just needed to wait to see if he could find any of his friends or even Suguha. However he couldn't find any of them at the moment, and he was really starting to get nervous.

"Hey man, do you know what's going on?" a voice asked.

Kirito turned around to see a person with sand colored hair and electric blue eyes, he stood about Kirito's height, and Kirito had no idea who this was. However this person was wearing armor similar to that of almost everyone hear except for a few exceptions including Kirito himself.

"No, sorry," Kirito replied.

"Where did you get that coat my friend," the other boy asked looking into the crowd.

"I spawned with it, I'm not sure why," Kirito replied.

"Ah, I wish I got a cooler coat," he said.

Strangely this person seemed to not be a scared as everyone else. He was acting calm like as if everything was fine, but Kirito knew that he was scared on the inside. It's a trick that some people did for SAO, if they didn't appeared frightened in times of terror then people will be more likely to choose him as their leader. This guy was planning on making a guild.

The crowd was soon silence by a flash of light, and the next thing Kirito noticed was there was a person standing on top of the fountain in the center. This person wore a modern looking suit that was almost a dark navy in color. He had black straight hair and the most noticeable feature was that his face was covered with a mask. This mask was split down the middle, the right side being black and the left side being white, there was a smile on this mask which change colors when it crossed over the center in order to keep opposite with the background it was on. People around was starting to wonder who this person was. However Kirito had a feeling that they would find out what was going on soon enough.

"Welcome players, to my world, Forsaken Heavens Online!" the man announce with what seemed to be joy.

However the players didn't seem as enthusiastic, the started venting their anger by yelling and cursing at this man. Asking why they had been brought here and what reason did this person have for keeping them hostage. However this seemingly had no effect on fazing the person on the fountains top. Actually he seemed more composed then before.

"I am the creator of this world, you may call me… Hysteria," the masked man continued, "You are now the first hundred thousand citizens of FHO. Allow me to give you the rundown of the situation. I'm pretty sure some of you have noticed some things about this game already, and if you had played SAO, then you might know exactly the crucial thing. That there is no log out button."

Kirito could not believe what he was hearing. Could this really be true? Is this man really recreating the SAO incident? Kirito opened his inventory window again, and sure enough what Hysteria said was true, the log out button was gone.

"You may be wondering why I am doing this; the answer is that I wanted to become a god. But the only way that was possible was by doing what my predecessor Akihiko Kayaba did. But fear not, I shall not make the same mistakes as he did. With that in mind, I am going to inform a certain someone that I cleared all the admin profiles and replace them with mine, so Heathcliff is no longer an administrator, and that only I can control this world," Hysteria continued.

Kirito realized that even though Hysteria didn't mention it, Hysteria was talking to Kirito, so he must have known the details of what happened in ALO. But how could this person know? Only Sugo, Asuna, and himself were in the area in which that happened. The only way is if he looked over the activity logs.

"Also, in order for me to truly be a god, I needed it to be as accurate to the real world as possible. So therefore if you die in here, you also die in the real world. Just like in SAO," Hysteria explained.

This was not happening, this had to be a bad dream. This Hysteria person just grabbed hundred thousand people who were logging in and forced them into another death game? What could this possible accomplish?

"Also, I will tell you that I will not be hidden amongst you, however I will be more or less in control of the events happening in this game. Therefore preventing the risk of anyone beating the game before you're supposed to. Also I am taking this opportunity to inform you that I am not the final boss," Hysteria continued on.

So this Hysteria person was going to be controlling the events in this game. So in all, he is going to spawn monsters in which they will have to fight. How could this person possibly have a good conscience about this?

"Now, to talk about the actual game itself. In this game there are multiple floating islands, a hundred to be exact. Each one is called a territory, and each one has its own scenery and biome. The only way you can head to the next territory is through the territory gates, which can only be activated by an item dropped by the boss of each territories dungeon. Each boss will only drop this item on the first time they're defeated. But just in case a glitch happens each boss crystal can only open that territory's gate and not any of the others. When special events are going to happened they will be announced, and don't worry special events only happen within the area's you have unlocked," Hysteria instructed the masses of players.

"Also if you want help, I would very wisely suggest that you inquire of the former SAO players, you can identify them by looking at what they're wearing. For the Sao players are wearing the gear they last had in SAO itself. Now good luck and I hope to see many of you back on the other side," Hysteria finished.

Hysteria clapped his hands together and he started to glow. The glow briefly became blinding before disappearing al together. Now when people looked, Hysteria was gone, and with that the sanity of the players as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The moments that followed the announcement was total chaos, for people immediately began crowding in the former SAO players creating a stampede that could have proved to be lethal. It took Kirito a good hour to get out of the crowds. Kirito tried searching for the sight of either Suguha or any of his friends, but he didn't find any of them. He knew they were here; it's just that the crowd was so large he could not pick them out. Or probably they had already somehow had left the immediate area. Both that and the possibility that he just couldn't see them were possible. However Kirito didn't want to stay in the crowd for too long.

Kirito had traveled up the path a little ways. Once he found a quiet spot he decided to take a further look into the situation. When he went into the item menu he noticed he still had Yui's Heart with him, which that was a relief. However he wasn't going to activate it right now, because mobs could be nearby and without admin powers Yui would be defenseless. He wanted to activate her when he arrives at a motel or something, somewhere safe. That way he wouldn't risk losing her.

Kirito now checked his friend list, which was empty. Apparently Hysteria didn't want friends to gang up right away, or maybe he had some other reason. Kirito would have to re friend them once he meets up with them. Apparently it just appears that everything went to blank slate. Even the coat he wore had no special effects and it was level one. Apparently it was specifically designed to identify him as Kirito from SAO.

Kirito also looked at a newer section of the menu called "skills map" which seemed that depending on how much you upgrade a certain stat you can gain new skills depending on what you chose. There were various skills in which stood out to Kirito as he looked through the list. Dual wielding of course interested him, but he also notice the skills Aura Blast, Blade Blitz, Torch Light, Meltdown, and others which looked powerful and also needed high stat levels in order to unlock.

After about an hour of checking out the menu Kirito stood and continued on the trail. Soon he had reached a small village town in which there was an Inn. Kirito used a small amount of the money that he started with to pay for a room. Once in the room he went through his inventory and found Yui's heart. He activated it and shortly the program that had the young girl appearance appear.

"Hello daddy! It's good to see you again!" Yui said giving him a big hug.

"Hey Yui, it's good to see you too, but there's a situation right now," Kirito replied.

The small black haired grey eyed girl looked up with puzzled eyes. She seemed to be curious about what Kirito was talking about.

"What is it?" she asked.

Kirito explained everything that has happened thus far, while she listened Yui took in and filed the data into her memory banks.

"Yui could you see what this system is and if there's anything you can do?" Kirito asked.

Yui gave a nod and then used her imbedded programming to identify the server's parameters, scoping out to see its basic properties and how the system operated. Yui recorded the data as she scanned, for it would prove to be useful to keep this kind of memory on hand.

"It seems to have been taken from the cardinal system base that was used in SAO; however it has been altered significantly, to the point where it actually seems more advanced than the original cardinal system. It not only adapts and grows, but it seems to also learn. For instance if you keep using the same pattern of attack on enemies they will quickly learn how to defend against that strategy," Yui explained.

"So it forces you to keep changing your strategy. SAO did something similar, but at least if you had complex attack patterns they wouldn't be able to follow along," Kirito figured.

"Also I seemed to notice that the system recognizes me as a foreign object, yet it chooses to ignore me," Yui informed, "it's probably because I can't access any administrator privileges in here, so I wouldn't really give an advantage to you."

"Okay, is there any way you can find out where the others are?" Kirito asked.

"No, but I do have access to the player list, and their current status. All our friends and mommy are online in this game. All are also in good condition," Yui announced as she mentally read it off.

Kirito was relieved to hear that, at least everybody was okay. As long as they were alright Kirito was at least a little comforted. So all he had to do was find them, once he did they could work together to beat the game. But right now they needed to figure out what to do. Probably he should take it safe, level up until he was more than strong enough to go to the next level of enemies. That sounded like a good idea. Probably, he should start doing that now.

"Yui, I'm going out to try to level up, don't open the door to somebody we don't know," Kirito said as he walked to the door.

"Don't worry I won't," Yui reassured.

A few hours later, Kirito was out in a nearby field where monsters seemed to spawn commonly. These monster were called Auger Cats, which were panther size cats with a bone like growth on their tails which would act like a drill when they strike. These were a little bit more powerful then Kirito, so he had to pay more care to not being hit than landing strikes on the creature. Of course it took longer, but the rewards would be great for defeating higher level enemies at such low levels. However Kirito took care not to go to extreme in his choice of enemy. He only fought the monster if they were two levels above him or lower. Thus he would get more experience and level up sooner, once he had leveled up enough he could probably take on the next enemy which he saw was the Lurker.

The Auger Cat shot its tail toward Kirito in which he side stepped to avoid. As he fought the mob, memories of SAO went through his head. They were both good and bad memories, some he cherished and some he wanted to forget and never have again. How did he happen to get stuck in this situation all over again. Kirito knew that it wasn't his fault, or maybe there was a specific reason this happened. However, it didn't matter. Kirito was determined to keep fighting, he was determined to survive. He was determined to get everybody out.

Kirito landed a hit on the Auger Cat which drained the rest of its health a little too quickly. Kirito was puzzled at first, until he saw that he had landed a critical hit on it. This was a new feature; SAO didn't have critical hits that came about. Of course this might seem like a good thing at first, but no doubt Hysteria also designed that monsters could land critical hits on you, or even other players can also. What could be used as a tool would also prove to be lethal, thus Kirito would have to be more careful.

For now if one of these mobs landed a critical on him it would be instantly fatal. Now Kirito was thinking that fighting these things wasn't so good for an idea. It's a shame though, but at least he's already ahead of the others by a small amount.

Kirito sheathed his blade and ran off so as to not accidently come into combat with a high level mob. But as Kirito headed for the Drifters which were now at his same level, his memories of SAO continued to soar through his mind. They occupied his world, and made up his life by now. Most of all he just wanted to be with Asuna again. Right now no matter what he told himself, even if he didn't know it that was what he truly wanted.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Three months had passed since the start of Forsaken Heavens online. Surprisingly the first territory of the game had already been cleared. This new territory proved to be stone filled in appearance. Mostly barren and large boulders everywhere. Out in the waste land an orange haired girl fought alone against the mobs here. Her light weight blade danced through the air at the mob, not allowing it a chance to either learn he attack pattern or to defend itself. The Roller Guard, a bug looking creature with a hard outer shell on its back shrieked ear shattering cries as the girl's blade repeatedly pierced its softened belly.

Once it did the orange haired girl gave a quick glance around. When she saw that no more of the mobs were around she went to go searching for more. She needed to level up quickly if she was going to survive. She checked the stats on her Iron rapier that she wielded. Its durability was good but the weapons hp was low now. She was going to have to repair it soon; luckily she bought a few repair gems before going out. She re-sheathed the blade, and took out a water bottle. Her thirst meter was getting empty, and if a player let it empty out, their health would drain till either they drank something or they died. Another killer factor she had found out in this game, it was the same way with that hunger bar.

After taking a few sips of the water, she re clipped the bottle to her side clip and continued to walk through the barren wasteland that the second territory; known as Truskah, proved to be. Her eyes skimmed the horizon which seemed to move and writhe from the heat distortion. Her heavy steps, exhausted from the heat, kept dragging her on despite their protest. It seemed that the longer she stayed out here the more the risk of death increased.

"Why did that guy have to make the second territory a blasted desert?" She asked herself just before taking another swig of the water clipped to her side.

She could hear a distant tremor, and it seemed to get louder. As the girl turned around she could see that there was a team of three people arriving toward her position. Each one rode on top of an Iron Shell Beetle, which is one of the higher up mobs for this area, which also had the ability to be tamed by a beast tamer. These beetles were large and armed with six sharp talon armed legs. They had a hard metallic shell and the small multi-lensed eyes. They're horns were thick like tree branches and sharp enough to skewer a person in a flash.

The girl placed her hand on the hilt of her blade, just in case these people were going to be hostile. Meanwhile she was trying to formulate a plan of escape in her mind. The ground tremored even more as the creatures approached. Then with a sharp command from the leading player the three of them stopped. The lead player tried to calm his Iron Shelled Beetle, which was riled up on adrenaline. Once the rider calmed it down he dismounted off of his beetle.

The rider wore thin leather armor right now, which was dyed purple. He had sand colored hair, which was straight and extended only an inch past his ears. It was accompanied by electric blue eyes which glittered like gem stones. The person put on a cheerful smile, and put his hands up to show that he came in peace. One his back was a sword and shield, but however the sword had a longer blade, which meant it was an Iron Claymore.

"Hello there, we come in peace so no need to worry about pking," he said.

The girl relaxed a little bit, but she still kept her hand at her side just in case this was a deception.

"The name is Ashbrooke; and I had recently founded a guild. We are looking for recruits," he explained, "We heard that you were experience in guilds and would make a good member."

"How can I trust you?" the girl asked.

"Well, a person with your credentials would be useful; it would be stupid to kill you off. It would be much wiser to have you join us. Safety in numbers right?" Ashbrooke explained.

This person's reasoning's were sound and logical. Also her past experience would be useful, but also past experience told her to be careful of whom she hangs around with. The last time she was in a guild, it didn't end up too well. But however this person was around her age, and he looked innocent enough. In fact there could be no way that this person was Hysteria in disguise.

A small window appeared and it posed a question. There question sat in her mind for a little while as she thought it over.

"The guild 'Templers of the Night Sky' is requesting you to join them! Do you accept?" it read.

"If you don't want to join, we understand," Ashbrooke said.

The girl reached out with her hand, hesitant at first, and originally hovering her finger over the deny button. But then she quickly switched over and was about to press the accept button.

"One condition, I can leave the guild whenever I want, no exceptions," she said.

"Understandable, and acceptable terms," Ashbrooke said with a charming smile on his face.

The girl pressed the accept button, and immediately her stats change to say that she was now in the guild "Templars of the Night Sky", and she was given the rank of lieutenant, which she noticed wasn't the lowest rank, but it wasn't close to being a high official in the guild.

"I hope that you understand why I can't put you in a high position of power immediately, if I did the other members would get jealous. But if you complete missions , I'm sure you'll quickly rise in the ranks," Ashbrooke assured.

"I understand," the girl replied.

"Well then, welcome to The Templers of the Night Sky, Asuna."

End

[Apparently I got repeated emails complaing about the short episode length stories so I will combine them all into one story but have multiple parts that are episode length. Each acting as a separate story.]


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